Apparatus for rolling sheet metal.



No. 670,920. y

B. E. TY. APPARATUS FR RL; G SHEET METAL.

(Application led Jan. 1`2, 1899.)

(No Model.)

A TTU/UVEK Patented Mar. 26, I90I.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BERTRAND E. V. LU'IY, OF ALLEGHENY, PENNSYLVANIA.4

APPARATUS FOR ROLLING SHEET METAL.

l SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 670,920, dated March 26, 1901.

application filed January 12, 1899. Serial No. 701,912. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern: Be it known that I, BERTRAND E. V. LUTY, a citizen of the United States of America, re siding at Allegheny, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Rolling Sheet Metal; and Ido hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description-thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, in Which- Figure l indicates an elevation of 'an apparatus or mill adapted to the application of my method for rolling bars,'pairs, or packs of sheet metal for sheet-iron,galvanized iron, tin-plate, &c. Fig'. 2 is a vertical section of the same.

My invention relates to improvements in 4apparatus for rolling bars, pairs, or packs of sheet metal for sheet-iron, galvanized iron, tin-plate, &c.

Heretofore, so far as I am aware, in rolling Y iron and steel sheets in the manufacture of iso sheet-iron, galvanized iron, and tin and terne plates it has been necessary when the gage is lighter than N016 American sheet-iron gage to inish the material after roughing in packs of two, four, six, eight, twelve, or any other n umber of sheets to the pack. This work has been done usually on a stand of two-high chilled rolls driven at a practically uniform speed, the rolls being kept at a high temperature by the hot material passed between them. In order to prevent the too-rapid chilling of the metal being rolled, it is necessary that the rolls be kept at a high temperature, yet in order to prevent breakage of rolls overheating the same must be avoided. Consequently in order to observe both these conditions the product of the milli'. e., the lnumber of heated packs, bars, or pairs of sheet metal passed through the same at a certain timemust be limited to a number calculated not to overheat the rolls, thus limiting the output of the mill, the output of which is further limitedby the loss of time occasioned by reheating the packs repeatedly before the same are finished or reduced sufficiently. This arises from the fact that the. pack after being passed between the pair of rolls 'is passed back over the top roll for the succeeding pass and cools so rapidly that but a very Ilimited number of passes can be made'before, as' above stated, the metal must be reheated. These frequent reheatings not only limit the output of the mill, but are expensive, as a great deal of skilled labor is required and a large amount of fuel consumed. The only successful departure from the method herein outlined is that in'some casesthe Workis di vided between two or more stands of rolls similarl to the one described, and sometimes the rolls in the stand ou which the roughing is done are kept comparatively cool by having a thin stream of water runon them, This is practicable in this case, because the bars which are roughed down have much more body than the pairs or packs which are rolled in the finishing staud'of rolls, and

therefore stand the cooling effect of the rolls better.

The object of my invention is to overcome these difficulties; and to this end my invention consists in theemployment of a stand of 4to its heat-receiving capacity tothe production of sheets, whereby the pairs or packs when heated may be repeatedly passed between the same, whereby a greater number of passes may be made than at present before they are too cool to be acted upon.

In the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, I show a form of mill or apparatus adapted to the application of my improved method, in which like reference characters indicate like parts wherever they occur.

I am aware that a mill comprising three rolls in the stand is known as a three-high mill and is in extensive use. '.In the threehigh mill as now constructed and operated the middle roll is comparatively much smaller than the top and bottom rolls, which insures a greater draft or reducing power. The difficulties of maintainingr thev large rolls hot, and yet not heating thesmall roll enough to injure it, utterly precludes the useof the regular three-high' mill for rolling sheets, mainly because the middle roll (even if it v .were'the same lsize as .the other rolls) would get too hot. perature of "a roll is determined by the relaf 'tion which exists .between its heat-receiving and its heat=radiating capacity. The ordinaryhthreehigh mill therefore is utterly inapplicable tothe rolling of sheets, because the middle roll, while having a smaller heat.-

radiating surface than the top or bottom roll, receives about twice as much heat as either of them, 'being in contact with the heated metal at every pass, while the top andV bottorn rolls are subjected to this radiating eect only at alternate passes.

Referring now to said drawings,A represents an ordinary yand usual form of housingv in which the `rollsl, 2, and 3 are suitably journaled. -In the accompanying drawings the roll l is shown slightly larger than rolll3,`

although this may be reversed, or .both may' be of `the same size, without in anyiwise departing from my invention.' The roll 2,.or' lthe intermediate roll, is comparatively as large as to radiating-surface as the other ltwo rolls combined, so that its eective heatradiating surface is equal to the .eective heat-radiating surfaces of the other two rolls combined, and in order to produce the results attained by me it is essential that the eective heat-radiating capacity of the small rolls A .combined equals the eiective heat-radiating capacity of the large roll, the result of which is to maintain all the rolls of the mill at the same or substantially the same temperature,

which insures against breakage of the rolls and injury to the product ofthe mill.

Inthe practice of myinvention the middle orintermediate roll or rolls'need not exactly'.

-. equal the heat-radiating areaof the top-and I have discovered that thetembottom rolls. A general. correspondence is all that is necessary in order to keep the rolls ata temperature that will prevent injury to the-metal being rolled'by being too low and to the rolls by being too highl l In carrying out myl invention the bars,

- pairs, or packs having been heated in .the

usual or any suitable mannerare passed back and forth alternately between the top and middle and between the middle and bottom rolls,- it being immaterial which way the first pass is made, and a reduction is, accomplished.

at each pass. NVhen as many passes have been made as possible or desirable, the metal" is matched, doubled, or otherwise treated and l the operation repeated with more metal. By this means it is possible..to 4make a greater number of passes with consequent greater reduction for eachheating than is now the case, while the rolls are lall subjected to a'v lequal to the eiective heat-radiating surface of the intermediate roll'.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto affixed my signaturein the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.`

lBERTlExiAfNl) E, V.. LUTY.

Witnesses; CLARENCE A. WILLIAMS, J OH'N H. Ronny. 

